Week of May 8th

Let’s start with the economy : Greece asked last week to activate the European rescue plan, which has been put together during the last. However, the markets are still not relieved ; it is now the risk of contagion that worries, despite the European summit at the end of the week and the declaration of the European Central Bank (thought those were a bit of disappointment). [*,*,*,*] Portugal is sometimes considered as the next in line [*] and the euro gets down to record lows – below $1.26 at the end of the week. Financial markets fear a new crisis, which make the exchanges volatiles and unstable.[*,*]

The European Parliament was seating in plenary session at Strasbourg this week. The big thing of the session was the SWIFT agreement : US Vice-President Joe Biden talked before the MEPs[*]. The parliament is still opposed to the transfer of raw data [*]. MEPs also voted to allow the 18 Lisbon MEPs to seat[*].

Other big news this week : the general elections in the UK show a decline for the Labour, a net preference for the Tories and a not so good result for the LibDems. No majority appeared and the country is facing a hung parliament. An alliance between D. Cameron’s Tories and N. Clegg’s LibDem is possible.[*,*]

Other EU country, other elections: the Belgium Parliament is dissolved and elections are planned for next months [*]

The next weeks will be difficult for travelers with the coming of a new round of volcanic ashes in the European sky [*]

Finally, today, May 9th, is Europe day, celebrated every year at this precise date to remember the Schumann declaration, which launched the European project in 1950 [*,*].